25.09.2025
In an article crafted by Jean-Jacques Landrot, three former presidents of ATIBT pay tribute to Simon Rietbergen, who passed away last week.
ATIBT's relationship with Simon Rietbergen dates back to early 1996, when, as the new Secretary General of ATIBT, I was invited by Gérard Sournia (Head of Environment at the French Ministry of Cooperation) to participate in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Congress in Montreal (Canada). During the many meetings at this Congress, I was approached by a tall Dutchman who introduced himself as the World Bank's “Forestry Specialist for Africa.”
From our very first exchanges, I was impressed by the highly pragmatic knowledge of the African timber industry possessed by this senior international official, who had been trained at Wageningen University and had already worked in most of Africa's forestry countries for the WB, FAO, ITTO, and IUCN.
The ATIBT was in the early stages of adapting the “Forest Management Plan to African Forests,” and Simon immediately confirmed not only his interest, but also his support for participating in our work.
“Thanks to Simon, the IUCN was the first NGO (soon followed by WCS and TFF) to participate in our work and, together with the FAO, to provide us with support, expertise, and international credibility by “de-demonizing our organization and its members during those years of tropical timber boycotts.”
Like Simon, Hinrich Stoll and Robert Hunink were also members of the board of directors of TFF (Tropical Forest Foundation) and they remember very well and with emotion that during their biannual meetings in Washington, at the end of the evening, after their work on “forestry training applied to the tropics,” Simon would often “strum a few chords” to lighten the mood!
In addition to his highly constructive contributions to the early work of ATIBT on “road infrastructure,” “Code of Ethics,” and “management plans for tropical forests,” Simon was also a very diplomatic supporter of ATIBT and its members in the face of attacks (very violent at the time) from certain NGOs in Europe, as well as in our negotiations with the World Bank to combat “forest taxation that is very detrimental to sustainable management.”
Simon Rietbergen took up the cause of this cancellation and accompanied us on several occasions to Washington (see attached photos, where Simon towers above us all with his ever-smiling face) for our various meetings with his former colleagues at the World Bank and President J. Wolfensohn himself.
The ATIBT is very grateful to him and extends its deepest condolences to his family, former colleagues, and all his friends.
Alongside Jean-Jacques Landrot, the co-signatories of this message are Dr. H. Stoll and R. Hunink.
